NOTES AQUATICS RESOURCE GROUP
Regular Meeting of the Board
Call to order: 1:00 pm
Location: Herrity Building, 12055 Govt. Ctr. Pkwy. Fairfax, VA 22035, 9th floor conference room, Room # 905
Attendees: Sandy Kellogg, Willa Whitacre, Josh Schmidt, Ashley Fink, Jimmy Lyon, Brad Wilson, Charles Horton, Terry Caldwell, Patrick Wells, Nancy Turnage
Do you guys think we should distinguish between people there in person vs. conferenced in?
Agenda approval: Willa Whitacre moved to approve the meeting agenda, Brad Wilson seconded the motion – agenda approved 5 to 0 vote.
Minute approval: No previous meeting notes to approve
Liaison report: No new information at this time
Committee Reports:
Sandy Kellogg introduced the 2016 ARG Board members and positions:
Past Chair – Jimmy Lyon
Current Chair – Sandy Kellogg
Chair Elect – Willa Whitacre
Communications Officer– Josh Schmidt
Professional Development – Ryan Keelor
Treasurer – Ashley Fink
Spring session: Will be held Feb. 17th from 930-4, starting at Reston Association and ending at Reston Community Center. Speakers so far include Hank Lavery from Millennium Pools, Takesha Cannon from FFX stormwater, Joe Leary from RCC about Paddock Evacuator. Is there anything else the group wants to focus on for the session? Sandy Kellogg opened a forum to discuss the Fall Session.
Willa Whitacre would like to include the following topics in the fall session presentation: underwater stains, white coat patching, everyday problems, what break most often.
Sandy Kellogg asked if anyone had been approached by Fairfax County Storm Water.
Brad Wilson would like to see ADA-related topics, such as: requirements, who it applies to, timeline requirements.
Sandy Kellogg asked if the FCPA ADA coordinator or Millennium Pool Company would be preferred.
Brad Wilson said he would prefer an expert in the field, but he wouldn’t rule anyone out.
Sandy Kellogg said she was going to a pool and spa show and would bring back ideas. She then asked if anyone had experience with glass filters.
Josh Schmidt replied that Cub Run or Oak Marr may have glass, and he also stated he had experience with glass filters at Lifetime Athletic in Reston.
Sandy Kellogg stated that there were already 14 registered for the Spring session and she was excited about that. She then asked what we wanted to plan for lunch.
Willa Whitacre said Potbelly’s was easy and cheap, and we could have fruit and granola in the morning part of the session.
Sandy Kellogg reviewed the timeline of the Spring Session with everyone: morning session starts at Reston Association HQ, lunch will be at RA HQ at the conclusion of the morning session. The attendees will then travel to Reston Community Center for a hands-on Q&A tour of the facility including the Evacuator and other equipment. She then stated that she and Willa would take care of food.
Willa Whitacre complimented the flyer created by Josh Schmidt, the Communications Officer. Josh seconded the compliment.
Communications: Sandy asked Josh to explore the digital storage options that the ARG has in place and what the plan is for the future. She then opened a forum for discussion.
Brad Wilson suggested to look at Google Drive.
Willa Whitacre stated that Drop Box was for video submissions and One Drive was for ARG files.
Sandy stated that some videos were submitted on YouTube and that ARG was not able to pull them from YouTube to archive, however, video storage has only been an issue concerning Lifeguard Cup.
Willa stated she was curious about webinar streaming by VRPS and asked if we could piggyback.
Nancy Turnage said that VRPS uses gotowebinar.com, which has an option to film, download the video to a hard drive (MPG or WMD), then put the video back up to the website where only members can login and see. They can also track who is using.
Sandy tasked Josh with looking into and taking a course of action.
2016 Budget: Sandy Kellogg introduced the new ARG Board Treasurer, Ashley Fink, and caught her up on decisions made at the previous meeting: the new banner and table runner for conference and other events, zeroing out the 2015 budget by donating remaining funds to the Foundation, and that the 2016 budget includes plans for embroidering shirts for the ARG board as long as they supply the shirts themselves.
New business:
Motion from Sandy Kellogg; Assign Committees within ARG for each planned event
Second from Willa Whitacre;
Motion passed
Sandy stated that this was recommended by the VRPS Board liaison. Historically, ARG has discussed events as a group, and Sandy requested discussion for input on how we will go about doing this. Sandy opened a forum for discussion.
Sandy Kellogg stated that we have 5 things listed as possible events for 2016 and that we need to decide if we want to do them again. Last time an event was held in Harrisonburg, VA the time investment and travel was huge.
Willa Whitacre stated that events typically have the same regular attendees, and that round-tables would not do well online.
Ashley Fink asked if we could theme the round-tables. Josh Schmidt agreed with that idea. Ashley also thought that maybe we could get building maintenance professionals in the area involved.
Sandy Kellogg asked Charles what he thought about it.
Charles Horton said that he had invited a fellow jurisdiction and they didn’t know what VRPS was. He recommended that there be better marketing. He said that there are areas of the state that don’t even know we exist.
Willa Whitacre stated that ARG has reached out to different locations away from northern Virginia, including Richmond area YMCA.
Sandy Kellogg recommended that a report on the Spring Session should be presented at the next round-table.
Nancy Turnage said that Arlington recently renewed their VRPS agency membership and their new assistant director was breathing new air into the agency.
Willa Whitacre asked if we could get Virginia Lifeguard Association involvement. ARG has never gone there for round-table ideas.
Sandy Kellogg asked if anyone was going to VLA and Brad Wilson stated he was.
Motion from Willa Whitacre; have notes taken on the presentation at VLA and present them at the next round-table.
Second from Sandy Kellogg;
Willa Whitacre stated that VLA is more focused on engaging part time lifeguards. Northern VA is more full-time staff. At previous VLA events, discussion on staff management could go on as long as 45 minutes and when programming was brought up there would be crickets.
Sandy Kellogg asked who would take the lead on the Round-Table committee.
Willa Whitacre stated that she was already working on locations.
Sandy Kellogg stated that Willa and herself would take the lead on the roundtables, and then asked Brad to assist since he was going to VLA and would help package the information from VLA that they want to present to the roundtable. Sandy also mentioned that she and Josh are running a camp counselor aquatics safety training for FCPA.
Sandy Kellogg stated that she was working on Virginia Swims Instructor workshops that may translate well to webinars. She asked if the group would like to see this happen. She also said that Nancy has been helpful behind the scenes.
Discussion: Sandy Kellogg said last year, agencies submitted teams and ARG sent them packets. They tried to keep the event adaptable by different agencies. 10 groups competed last year. Spirit videos were required and intended to be scored, but technology was a problem. ARG sent certificates of participation and prize packs to the teams and a $50 gift certificate to Papa Johns to the winning team.
Sandy requested two volunteers to the lead the committee for lifeguard competition. Josh Schmidt and Brad Wilson volunteered. Jimmy Lyon volunteered to assist.
Motion from Willa Whitacre; mandate that each committee have at least one ARG Board member
Second from Sandy Kellogg; Motion passed.
Discussion: Sandy Kellogg said that if there wasn’t a board member on the committee, then the board needed to make an immediate decision on whether to keep the lifeguard completion virtual.
Motion from Ashley Fink; decide if the 2016 lifeguard competition with be virtual like the previous year.
Second from Brad Wilson; Motion passed.
Motion from Sandy Kellogg; Select committee members for the Fall Guest Speaker workshop.
Second from Willa Whitacre; Motion passed.
Discussion: Sandy Kellogg reminded the group of the past Fall guest speakers: 2014 – Griffith, 2015 Redwoods Group
Willa Whitacre offered to be the lead on the committee and has a list of possible professionals. She wants to move away from northern Virginia and put on this event cooperatively with a service area. She said that 3 years ago, the emergency management workshop was part ARG, part NSA. She says that the Fall Workshops should be more in line with Executive developments and asked for help.
Josh Schmidt and Ashley Fink offered to join the committee.
Motion from Sandy Kellogg; Select committee members for the VRPS conference.
Second from Willa Whitacre; Motion passed.
Discussion: Sandy Kellogg reminded the group that in past years, ARG has filled a spot on the education review committee to help review and select proposals for presentations at the conference. She also said we need to advocate for more aquatics related sessions and hopes that our board liaison will have more information on ARG’s responsibilities. Sandy reminded the group that session proposals are now being accepted by VRPS through May 1st.
Nancy Turnage said that if one of our proposals is not selected, to ‘keep it in our back pocket.’
Sandy Kellogg asked Nancy if ARG could get information on unselected presentations. Nancy said she would reach out to the education review committee.
Sandy Kellogg reminded the group on the presentation that have been given by ARG folks in the past: Ashley Fink did an in-service presentation that had about 25 attendees in 2015, Sandy presented the MAHC, and Britta Stratford and Jen Lainhart presented on private swim lessons. Sandy said that we will need people to help with conference as we get more info from conference organizers.
Next meeting: February 17th, 4:00 pm, Reston Community Center, following the Spring workshop
Adjourn: 3:13 pm